The stools have landed!

I am so excited to say that the new stools that I purchased yesterday and blogged about here... are tucked under the counter and ready for use!

Here is that before photo!

and here is the same view with our new lovely stools...

I LOVELOVELOVE!!!

Matt... Hates... but I will win him over! I think that we need some pendant lights and window treatments before he can fully see my vision!!!

Here is a little preview of what is in my head!

Hunter: 35 Weeks

Little guy turned 35 weeks yesterday and he has had a busy week!

• Second time that he was without his mommy overnight. (Had a work trip to Germany) Hunter did GREAT and my mom and Matt did such a great job taking care of the little man. 
• Hunter's Grandma Pam (Matt's mom) is here to visit! She had not seen Hunter in person since Thanksgiving! 
• He is still an amazing eater! Last night we went out to a restaurant and he literally ate a little bit of each entree. I mean what 8 month old has fish, steak, duck, beets, sweet potato, and salad in one night?
• Loves to stand up at the coffee table and play with his toys. 
• Celebrated the first Mother's Day (outside of belly)... I had a wonderful brunch and received a beautiful Stella & Dot Charm necklace with the birthstone of my two kiddos! 

Unexpected seating changes!

Yesterday I walked into Salvation Army with Emma and Hunter and I instantly fell in love with 5 beautiful wood and Iron Bar stools!

A day later and I STILL couldn't get these bar stools out of my mind! I started looking on-line and I found this stool on ebay which look look exactly like my thrift store chair!!!  

But WTF.... $125 for ONE???? My thrift store chairs were $25.00 each...

I also found similar ones here and here. 

AHHH I couldn't get them out of my mind... I HAD TO HAVE THEM!!!!!! 

I was so worried that these beauties would be gone that I scooped them up while I was on a work errand in the same area! I didn't even want to risk that they might be gone before I got off from work!

Here I am fingers crossed that they were still available... 

 

And they were there... 

Bonus: Wednesday is Customer Appreciation day at our Salvation Army and all items are 25% off! This means that I purchased all FIVE chairs for only $98.39 that is under $20 each!!! SCORE
 

I cannot wait to get them home and put them at the bar! As a reminder... this is what we are currently working with:

Two different stools! The horror! Two are from IKEA and the others are great and solid (came with the house) but it has bothered me for over two years that they do not match! I'm going to try to sell them on CraigsList... If anyone is interested just let me know!

The hard stuff that comes with the job!

Being a mom is awesome but HARD!

Within the last week I've had one of my hardest moments as a parent. While on my work trip I received an e-mail that Emma had been acting as a bully to a girl in her class and when confronted about it she had lied to her teacher and guidance counselor.

As I was sitting in my hotel room in Germany, all I could do is think is NOT MY CHILD! I know that this sweet darling girl that I gave birth to could NEVER intentionally hurt someones feelings. We had been through our own bullying experience in first grade... Emma would come home from school crying because of the mean things that a classmate had said... didn't that experience teach her to respect everyone even if they were different??? Had I failed as a parent somehow??? Did I not teach her? Had she overheard me talking about the clothes that someone was wearing when I make a comment under my breath? (Side note: I need to stop doing that) Could this all be my fault??? This is instantly where my head and heart went...

That night I had a hard conversation with Emma (on speaker phone)... She admitted to a few of the items that she was being accused of but I could tell that she was not being completely forthcoming. An appointment with the principal was made for Monday and I had to just stew on everything from another country... I knew that it would be too hard to get the whole truth from her without being face-to-face.

I came home from the trip and on Sunday, after our Mother's Day festivities, I did some true mothering. We sat down and had the BIG TALK. I shared with her that we are not all perfect and that once I had written bad things about a classmate, at around the same age, and that I too had been caught. We talked about bullying and why people bully (to get down to the real root of the problem). We talked about walking away from a situation when others are being unkind and not jumping in and joining the conversation. We talked about the need to not only apologize but to also show that you have learned from your actions and what needed to be done going forward.

It was also extremely hard to discuss the upcoming meeting with her principal... Emma needed to understand fully that this was a serious offense and that she could be suspended from school or even asked not to return next year (as she is a "guest" at her current school and needs annual approval to return)...

After a long talk and a lot of tears, I asked Emma if she had some people to apologize to... and she decided that she would start with writing letters. She did a letter to each of the people that she had lied to and she wrote a letter for the girl that she had said mean things about. 

Yesterday, Emma's Father & I met with the Principal and Guidance Counselor at 1 p.m. and I have to say that I was NERVOUS! I had never been in a situation like this... I had never been called to the Principal's office before! The conversation started with a confirmation on the seriousness of the situation and that Emma could be faced with suspension... From there I revealed that Emma had in fact admitted to the bullying and we walked through all of the items that we had discussed with Emma on Sunday at home.

It was decided that Emma would meet with the counselor again and that she would personally deliver the note to the classmate. This would allow for Emma will read it to her and apologize face-to-face.... which is a hard thing to do for a child. It was important for Emma to take responsibility for her actions and to show empathy and respect for her classmate.

In the end, Emma is not being suspended for her actions... of that I am very grateful!! I'm happy that she is being given another chance and an opportunity to show that she has learned from this experience.

She is not the only one that learned... this was a HUGE learning experience for me as a parent and I know that it will not be my last parenting challenge...

So that is what we have been dealing with in the Park household!

Thrifted Light turned to a DIY Project!

A few weeks ago I gave you a sneak peak of a project that I took on for the B-Thrifty blog.The project was a DIY Rope light fixture that I did for our spare bedroom...

As a reminder this was my mood board for the room...

Now let's focus in on that rope light fixture...

It is the Rope Chandelier from Pottery Barn and it is $299.00... it totally caught my eye because it was just so different and I felt like it would add a layer of warmth to the room and it would be such an interesting piece to have.... BUT I didn't LOVE IT! I felt like the rope was a bit too chunky for my taste and I was not a fan of the burlap shades because I felt like the distracted from the rope. PLUS Julie Park was NOT about to spend $299 on a light fixture...

SOOOO... off I went to B-Thrifty in Woodbridge, VA! I've seen some outdated brass chandeliers there previously and I had a plan!

I was so happy to find this beauty...

and just guess how much I paid!!!! Only $14.99!

It was missing one of the white plastic covers that protects/hides the wiring on one of the arms and I had no way to test it to make sure that the light would work but I had FAITH! I was going to turn this outdated light into something of beauty!

On the way home I stopped by my local Home Depot for some items to complete my lighting project:

- 4" White Plastic Chandelier Candle Covers, Package of 2 ($3.97)
- Skinny Jute Rope (2 packages for $2.33 each)
- Westinghouse 5" canopy kit ($5.97)
- Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint

The second I got home I immediately broke out the painters tape and used that to cover the areas of the lamp that I dint' want to get spray painted... I figured it would be no bueno to have spray paint on the wires!

After the lamp was taped off I got my spray paint on! I LOVE Oil Rubbed Bronze! It is probably my favorite spray paint. In fact I think that the lamp all ready looks better after a coat of the spay paint!

But the fun didn't stop there! Out came the Jute rope and my trusty glue gun!

And so the tedious work begins.  I'm not going to lie and tell you that this was an easy project it wasn't. It took a lot of time and concentration and I was burned multiple times with my glue gun. BUT I had a vision and I was going to see it through!!!

To get to this point was about 2.5 hours... Thank goodness for the Real Housewives and Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live! Also about this time the fear started to settle in that this light might not work when my hubby, Matt did the wiring to put it into the wall...

The next day I pushed forward to cover the arms... It was a Saturday...

Another 3 hours to completion I had a HUGE sense on accomplishment mixed with absolute FEAR that this light was not even going to work. I told hubby that even if this light didn't work that it would be hung somewhere in our home!

As Matt started the instillation process I held my breath... The moment of truth!!!

VICTORY!!!!

I LOVE THE LAMP. I like that I covered the ugly white plastic parts with the Jute. I love that you see the oil rubbed bronze! I love the skinnier rope that still allows for you to see the great curves on the light! I love the round bulbs that I found at Home Depot so that I wouldn't have to use shades.

My total investment was about $55.00 to include the light bulbs! LOVELOVELOVELOVE It is my favorite DIY project to date!

Spring Soccer Fun

So today I was going to post about a sunburst mirror that I am doing for my spare bedroom but... I'm not done....

So I figured that I would share a few photos from Emma's soccer game last week. They only had one sub but they were victorious! It was the best game that I have ever seen them play and Emma even scored!

Hunter loves to cheer his sister on!

 

 

 

 

Hunter at 34 Weeks!

At 34 Weeks Hunter is...

• A mover... We are not fully crawling yet but he sure can scoot! When you put him on the ground he typically heads right for Sophie or toys! Matt and I want to do a video tonight and I will post when we upload it! 
• A talker... no real words yet but he sure loves to babble! 
• Cheerful! Hunter is such a happy little man and all smiles!
• An Eater... Little guy LOVES to eat. He eats a banana a day and eats exactly what we eat for dinner with the addition of a fruit (typically strawberries) Hunter also loves to drink water out of a sippy cup.
• A HUGE fan of his sister. Hunter loves Emma so much and it is so apparent. Any time she enters a room and talks he strains his head to see her.